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Virtual Assistants Are Independent Contractors
One of the most important distinctions to understand when building a team is the difference between a virtual assistant and an employee's hiring status.
Virtual assistants are independent contractors. This means that they are not adding to your workforce as W-2 employees. They are responsible for paying their own taxes and do not receive traditional employee benefits like health insurance, paid time off, or retirement plans.
Additionally, depending on what you're comfortable with for your team, independent contractors can have more flexibility in setting their own work schedules and can work for multiple clients at once.
How Virtual Assistants Save You Money
Now that we understand that VAs are virtual contractors let's look at a few ways they save you money!
Lower Payroll Costs
One of the main benefits of hiring virtual assistants is the cost savings companies experience by not adding "employee" expenses to their payroll costs.
With virtual team members, you do not have to pay payroll taxes or benefits. Additionally, you only pay for the work they do. This is in contrast to employees, where you have to pay them for their time, whether they are productive or not.
Lower Recruiting Costs
One of the additional expenses of hiring W-2 employees goes beyond salaries and benefits. When scaling a property management company or commercial real estate business, business owners often incur recruiting costs to find the right employees.
Recruiting and training employees can be a costly process. These costs include job postings, recruitment, screening, and onboarding. If you work through a recruiting agency, expect your costs to be even higher before you bring a new employee on board.
In contrast, choosing a virtual assistant is a straightforward process with far fewer costs, especially when using a free platform like VPM Solutions. The best platform doesn't require any recruiting or placement fees to create a profile, post job descriptions, search the database of virtual talent, or manage and pay remote team members.
Virtual Assistants Deliver Savings and Quality
Saving money doesn't mean you have to lower your expectations for your new team members. On the contrary, adding a virtual assistant to your team can provide cost savings without sacrificing quality.
Virtual assistants can provide quality work at a lower cost than employees. For example, a real estate virtual assistant can help with administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, responding to emails, and managing social media accounts.
For property management companies and real estate agencies, virtual team members can also handle industry-specific roles, like transaction coordination, listings management, maintenance coordination, and more.
The best real estate virtual assistants are highly skilled professionals with experience in the real estate industry. Additionally, they are motivated to provide quality work, as their success depends on their ability to retain clients.
You Don't Have to Overpay for Good Help
We’ve mentioned that one of the biggest expenses associated with hiring employees is payroll costs. We've already talked about the payroll and recruiting cost savings real estate business experience when choosing remote assistants. However, there can be a misconception that lower-cost workforce solutions won't deliver the talent you need to improve productivity and customer service.
When choosing a virtual assistant through VPM Solutions, for example, you have access to thousands of skilled candidates. You can be very selective in who you choose for specific job roles based on your criteria, the job description, and the language, experience, and skill levels you prefer.
Plus, when using our platform, you don't pay any fees to find the talent you need. You'll also see VPM Academy certifications that tell you which virtual assistants have completed the training you prefer for specific roles.
There's no need to overpay for W-2 employees when you can find virtual help with the skill sets you prefer to fill crucial roles for your company.
Scaling Up Is Better With Virtual Assistants
Another advantage of choosing virtual assistants is that you can scale up or down as needed.
For example, if you have a seasonal business or a sudden increase in workload, you can find virtual assistants to help you.
Conversely, if you experience a slowdown or you need to reduce your workforce, you can reduce the number of virtual assistants you have on your team.
In addition, since virtual assistants are contractors, you don't have to worry about severance packages or other costs associated with letting an employee go.
Choosing virtual resources gives you the flexibility to scale exactly how you need it and when you need it. Whether you need a full-time virtual assistant or VAs on a project basis or for short-term roles, finding the talent for your specific needs is easier and more cost-effective with remote assistants.
How Much Could You Really Save?
A property management virtual assistant is a specialized type of virtual assistant who has experience in the industry — but how much can you really save when choosing a virtual contractor vs. an employee?
Is it really worth it to risk working with someone who isn't in your time zone (or even in the country)? Yes! The cost savings can be substantial. In many cases, property managers can add 2-3 virtual assistants to their team for the cost of hiring one W-2 employee.
Those savings lead to better efficiency and productivity and the ability to bring on more clients.
More clients lead to more revenue. With lower payroll costs and better efficiency, your company experiences a better bottom line.
Managing a Hybrid Team
When adding real estate virtual assistants to your team, you still have a core staff of W-2 employees.
VAs can't handle onsite real estate tasks, like property inspections or showings. Therefore, having an all-remote team for most real estate businesses is probably not feasible.
Virtual assistants work alongside your employees to provide additional support.
For example, a virtual assistant can help with administrative tasks such as data entry or scheduling, allowing your employees to focus on more specialized tasks. This can lead to increased productivity and efficiency in the workplace.
However, managing a hybrid team can present some challenges. Make sure your VAs have the training they need, understand different roles within the company, and have the right resources to engage with your team remotely.
Also, include them in team meetings and virtual activities so they understand they are part of the company.
Find the Talent You Need Through VPM Solutions
VPM Solutions is the only online platform that delivers real estate industry-trained virtual assistants to companies in the real estate industry. Our virtual assistants are experienced in a variety of real estate tasks, including lead generation, transaction coordination, and property management.
By choosing a VPM Solutions virtual assistant, you can save time and money while still receiving high-quality work.
Try Our Free Financial Impact Calculator
To see how much you could save by choosing an independent contractor vs. employee, try our free Financial Impact Calculator. This tool will help you estimate your potential cost savings based on your current staffing and workload. By using the calculator, you can make an informed decision about whether choosing a virtual assistant is right for your business!
